Police are investigating; say trooper had to make 'split-second' decision

Jeff Bletz stands in the front yard of his Lower Windsor Township home on Friday. A state trooper shot and killed his 8-year-old Rottweiler/Labrador mixed breed dog on Thursday at the home. Authorities had been on scene to serve a warrant on Bletz's daughter. (Jason Plotkin - Daily Record/Sunday News)

Ace, who was shot and killed by a state trooper. Police say Ace charged the trooper; Ace's owner, Jeff Bletz, disputes that story. (Submitted )

The U.S. Marshals Service had gone to the house in the 100 block of Gilbert Lane to arrest Kayla Bletz.

Kayla, 25, was wanted on several warrants, most recently one issued alleging her involvement in a robbery in Lancaster. She was also being sought for a probation violation. She had been on probation for passing bad checks.

Her father, Jeff Bletz, who lives in the rancher on Gilbert Lane with his 5-year-old grandson and his younger daughter, makes no apologies for his oldest daughter. It is what it is, the 55-year-old truck driver says.

Yet, what happened Thursday morning when the marshals and police came looking for Kayla, well, he said, "I don't understand it."

The marshals, accompanied by state police and other local law enforcement, approached his house from down the block at about 8:30 a.m. As the police closed in, a state police trooper took up a position on the perimeter of the side of the house, state police said later.

Bletz's Labrador-Rottweiler mix came from the backyard. Bletz had just put the dog outside and had gone to his garage.

What happened next depends on who's telling the story.

The one thing that is not disputed is that the state police trooper fired three shots. One hit the dog.

And the dog, named Ace, died.

"He came over here," Bletz said, standing at the corner of his garage, "and laid down and died. He had a big hole in his side."

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The state police said the dog aggressively charged the trooper, who, feeling threatened, pulled his service sidearm and shot the dog.

Bletz sees it differently.

"The cops murdered my dog," he said.

The state police are conducting an internal investigation into the shooting, something that is routine any time a trooper discharges a firearm in the line of duty, said spokesman Rob Hicks. Hicks said he didn't know whether the trooper, whose identity was not released, was re-assigned while the investigation was being conducted — something that's automatic when a trooper shoots a human being.

"It's definitely something you have to deal with," he said. "If a dog is being aggressive and coming at you, you have to make a split-second decision."

He continued, "No trooper ever wants to have to discharge their weapon, whether it's at a human being or an animal. Unfortunately, this is one of those times when the decision had to be made."

Bletz doesn't see it that way.

He showed the divots in his yard caused by the rounds fired by the trooper, the two shots that missed Ace. The trooper who fired them was at the side of his house, he said, apparently facing the front of the house when he fired. Bletz pointed at his front window and said, "My grandson was laying on the couch right by that window watching TV when it happened," he said. "He could have hit him."

Bletz also disputed the police version that Ace was charging the trooper when he fired the fatal shot. The fatal wound, he said, was right behind Ace's right front shoulder, in his side, indicating to Bletz that Ace had turned the corner at the side of the house and was heading toward the garage, where he was when he heard the shots.

A neighbor, William Maynes, said he was lying on the couch watching TV when he heard a woman yell, "Don't shoot the dog!" Then, he heard three shots.

Ace was a big dog, weighing maybe 100 pounds. Now and then, Ace would growl at people who came into his yard. But he had never hurt anybody. "He was a part of the family for eight years," Bletz said.

Maynes later took a shovel over to his neighbor's house and helped bury Ace in the backyard. Bletz's grandson placed some flowers on the grave and asked his grandfather, "Why'd they shoot Ace?"

Bletz didn't have an answer.

It turned out that Kayla, he said, hasn't lived with him in more than a year.